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Walmart gets its bite back
沃尔玛受到反击
In theory this should be a good time to be Walmart, the doyen of American retailers that came of age in the stagflationary era of the 1970s. Inflation is back, yet no one knows better than the Beast of Bentonville how to use the power of the growl to convince suppliers to lower prices. Supply chains are buckling, yet such is Walmart’s heft that it has chartered ships and bypassed rail services to deliver Halloween and Christmas goods early this year.
从理论上讲，这应该是沃尔玛的大好时机，这家在上世纪70年代滞胀时代成长起来的美国老牌零售商。通货膨胀又回来了，然而没有人比本顿维尔的野兽更懂得如何利用咆哮的力量来说服供应商降低价格。供应链正在萎缩，但沃尔玛的影响力如此之大，以至于今年早些时候，它租用船只，绕过铁路服务，运送万圣节和圣诞节商品。
Workers are in short supply, but it managed to add 200,000 jobs to its 2.3m global payroll in the three months to September. “There’s a level of excitement in the air, you can feel it,” enthused Doug McMillon, its chief executive, as Walmart raised its year-end sales and profit targets after solid third-quarter earnings on November 16th.
虽然劳动力不足，但在截至9月的3个月内，该公司在全球230万员工中增加了20万个工作岗位。“空气弥漫着一种兴奋的气氛，你可以感觉到，”沃尔玛首席执行官董明伦兴奋地说。11月16日，在第三季度获得相当不错的收益后，沃尔玛提高了年终销售和利润目标。
There’s a puzzle, though. Investors are not buying it. In the past year Walmart’s share price has lagged behind not just Amazon, the e-commerce giant, but other big-box American retailers, such as Target and Home Depot. On November 16th its shares fell a further 3%, as investors fretted over what Simeon Gutman of Morgan Stanley described as slightly “squishy” profit margins. Is the stockmarket, so enamoured of all things new, missing the turnaround story of the decade? Or is there something else to worry about, namely the hot breath of Amazon on Walmart’s neck?
但这里有一个谜题。投资者并不买账。去年，沃尔玛的股价不仅落后于电子商务巨头亚马逊，也落后于其他美国大型零售商，如塔吉特和家得宝。11月16日，由于投资者对摩根斯坦利的西蒙·古特曼所描述的略显“不稳定”的利润率感到担忧，其股价进一步下跌了3%。那么迷恋一切新事物的股市，是否错过了这十年的起色？还是有其他事情需要担心，比如亚马逊在沃尔玛脖子上吹来的一丝热气？
